Imperium

Chapter 30: Spark, Pt. 2

She holds him in front of her as Fritz takes his next strike. Cree grits his teeth and glares over his shoulder at Jane, throwing his legs up to kick Fritz and disrupt the attempted strike before he forces his metal arm to press his fist to Jane's stomach behind him.

He clicks the metal limb and Jane watches in question, when she feels a sudden sharp pain stabbing her in the stomach, forcing her to let him go.

Cree stumbles away and raises his metal arm to his side, there's a golden-bronze blade jutting out from his wrist, dripping with blood.

Jane holds the wound and hisses against the pain, but she quickly starts to chuckle, then laugh as she charges at him again, but Fritz grabs her arm and spins her around to face him instead. Without missing a beat, she slams her gun into his stomach, and he grunts, slicing at her head and she rolls out of the way, leaving his grip.

In the chaos, Regan tries crawling his way to the console, but Jane sees him and growls, running at him and kicking him in the face which makes him yelp and drop back, holding his jaw.

Cree grabs her from behind and pulls her away, slicing his bladed wrist at her stomach, but she jumps to the side and kicks him back.

He stumbles to the side and feels a second set of arms steady him, pulling him back to his feet. He looks over to see Fritz smiling wildly at him and he winks.

"You seem to have a little bit of a grudge, yeah?" he asks casually as if he's not in the middle of a fight.

Cree growls and dodges another bullet from Jane, and Fritz laughs.

"I can help you take 'er out," Fritz offers.

Cree stands with his attention divided between both him and Jane, and as he stares at Jane and feels that bubbling rage consume his heart, he's thrown back to that moment in the forest outside of Mortal. To the night before.

He remembers John's smile.

Sharing drinks and laughing together at the Free Watchman.

He nods to Fritz.

The Hex laughs before charging at Jane at the same time as Cree. He grabs her braid and pulls her head pack, giving Cree an opening to take a stab at her chest, but Jane aims her gun back and pulls the trigger.

Fritz yelps and follows it with a laugh, turning and slicing at her just as Cree attempts to do the same, but Jane rolls forward and turns around to face them both.

"You're not taking this away from me!" she screams and sprints at Fritz, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground.

Cree grabs her by her hood and yanks her back, but she merely keeps holding Fritz with one hand while the other aims at Cree with her assault rifle.

She pulls the trigger, but Cree is shoved out of the way.

Regan takes the hit, dropping to the ground with a shrill cry.

Cree sees Regan writhing in pain, and he feels himself become engulfed by the rage in his heart.

Jane throws her gun to the side and returns her hand to Fritz's throat, keeping him suspended in the air, tightening her grip. Feeling him squirm and gasp for breath.

She sees his struggling and his wild smile, but behind his eyes, she sees his fear.

She smiles as well and starts to laugh, never breaking her stare from his eyes as she tightens her grip even more, watching his face turn purple.

"I am nothing to the world. Nothing to society. Nothing to The Director..."

Her grip tightens a little more.